Rush has been extraordinarily charitable to Trump. So, it's not appropriate to dump on Rush here on FR just because Rush is finally pointing out something about Trump that a huge percentage of FReepers, including many who had formerly supported Trump, have recognized as politically dangerous flaws.
Trump really is acting like a liberal Democrat, Kenny. Rush is correct in pointing out that this is the real reason why Trump LOST Iowa, just as many of us had also warned. Trump's over-the-top viciousness against genuinely conservative and generally very decent Republicans is counterproductive, to say the least, since it reveals that Trump has no very conspicuous scruples. (Heck, none other than Michael Savage tried to warn him about this even when Trump was delighting quite a few political jerks with his ad hominem attacks against Ben Carson.)
My point, Rush's point, is that Trump has actually lost many of his supporters (and alientated many of the undecideds) even while he was gaining a few supporters via his viciousness against conservative Republicans.
Nationally speaking, it appears that Trump has hit the ceiling of national popularity. He is overall the most unfavorable candidate in either party. He won't be able to break through that ceiling in the general election, IMO--especially if the Dems surprise us with a different candidate than Bernie or Hillary--because so many conservatives find Trump downright repugnant. Cruz, on the other hand, has the ability to reason even with Corn Belt farmers. He would do better in the general election, because he would pick up most of the Trump supporters without losing all of the more conservative supporters.
Cruz is Reaganesque. Trump is anything but Reaganesque. And the fact that Trump's supporters are turning against Rush, of all people, shows me that Trump's supporters are almost (!) as clueless as liberal Democrats are.
Nationalism counts, but integrity counts even more.
bttt
You are arguing this from the standpoint of a typical politician as is Rush. Trump is a CEO who never cared about politics until recently and only cared about building his business in NYC. He should be making another billion rather than trying to save the country.
To find real solutions in DC you need someone with real world experience and he is the only one who has that. Is he abrasive and insulting, yes but he fights.
If he has to pass a purity test where are we going to find that since many here are ignoring the slivers in Cruz’s eye to pretend he is a conservative saint. Nobody answered his solution to Obamacare.
Some of us want to blow the entire system up and there is only one person who can.
As for most hated, when the entire establishment from both sides are firing what would you expect. Even at that he has the most crossover of any nominee. Wait til they go full blast on Cruz.
>>Cruz is Reaganesque.<<
I completely disagree. One of Reagan’s greatest strengths was his ability to speak to a particular audience effectively. He could always gauge their interest and would modify the direction he was headed as it became apparent that it wasn’t working as well as he wanted.
Cruz absolutely lacks that ability. It showed in the last debate in two glaring examples, the first at the opening with his attempted joke that fell flat as a pancake and the second when he tried to illustrate how all the last questions were targeted specifically at him. (He wasn’t wrong; he just mishandled the delivery of the information—compare to “I paid for this microphone.”)
And then, last night, he went way, way, over the top in his acceptance speech, both in tone and length. No graciousness, just pontificating. Had he screamed a bit louder at any particular point, it would have indeed been his Howard Dean undoing.
So, no, Cruz is not Reaganesque, although he might well make many of the same decisions if elected. But he doesn’t connect with people personalliy; Reagan did. Now, Rubio on the other hand....